


The Last Birthday

by grelleswife



Series: Dadbastian Week 2019 [5]
Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Dadbastian Week, Faustian Bargain, Found Family, Gen, Parent-Child Relationship, Platonic Relationships, but it doesn't end like most Faustian pacts, not sebaciel, trash demon realizes just how soft he is for this smol human
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:08:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21516550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grelleswife/pseuds/grelleswife
Summary: On his fourteenth birthday, the young earl finally obtains his revenge. What will Sebastian do now that their contract has reached its conclusion?
Relationships: Sebastian Michaelis & Ciel Phantomhive
Series: Dadbastian Week 2019 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1547587
Comments: 17
Kudos: 141





	The Last Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Dadbastian Week 2019 "birthday" prompt
> 
> The idea for this piece was inspired by the last few scenes from the OP for Season 2 of the anime, where Sebastian and Ciel are standing companionably together in a field of flowers. Yes, I talk trash about Season 2 a lot, but it has its good points, and the OP is one of them! I'm sure Yana's version of this will be far bleaker, but sometimes you just need soft things.

Their journey into darkness had reached its somber conclusion. With Sebastian’s aid, the Earl exacted revenge on those who murdered his family and tarnished his honor, putting the balance to rights. Of course, there was a price the boy must pay for his devilish butler’s assistance, and Sebastian was now entitled to claim the soul he had cultivated with such diligence. How ironic that this cold December day marked the young master’s fourteenth year. He would not live to see another.

Sebastian generally relished the end of a contract. It was his moment of triumph, the final flourish. Seeing a once-proud master gibbering in terror and promising him anything, _anything_ , if the demon would but spare his soul, was a truly stimulating experience. Yet the demon couldn’t summon up the glee he’d expected. Looking at the stoic youth at his side, he felt almost…wistful. This had by far been the most exasperating, challenging, involved, and surprising contract he had ever undertaken. He couldn’t quite process the fact that, in a few minutes, his young master would simply be _gone_.

“I suppose you’re going to take my soul now?” the boy asked, staring resolutely ahead.

“Y-yes, quite so,” Sebastian mumbled. Generally, it was a grisly process in which he would rip out the heart, dismember the corpse, and so on. But for the young master…no, absolutely not. This had not been a typical contract, and the Earl deserved better than a typical ending, regardless of how much of a brat he was. Sebastian scooped the child up, stepping smoothly out of the human’s world and into another. There were myriad parallel universes that could be reached by moving “sideways”; layers upon layers, out of reach to mortals but easily accessible to beings like Sebastian.

A dark indigo sky arched above them, stars scattered across the heavens like teardrops. Sebastian stood in a field of flowers that stretched out in all directions as far as the eye could see, pure white blossoms glowing with an ethereal light that shone from within.

The young master glanced up at the impenetrable blue of these strange new heavens. “Sebastian, what is this place?”

“A world far removed from yours, my lord. I thought it would be more suitable for…for the end.”

He gently put the boy down, fighting back the urge to hold him close and never let go. The Earl planted his walking stick firmly in the ground in front of him and tilted his chin imperiously. So broken, yet proud and dignified to the last. _How beautifully foolish_. Like a flower of the field, blooming today only to fall to the dark winds of fate.

There was neither resentment nor fear in the bright blue eye looking back at him. Instead, the young master’s expression was as peaceful and untroubled as a tranquil pond. Sebastian bowed on bended knee, not with the irony and condescension of their earlier years but out of the admiration and respect he had come to feel for his tiny human.

The left corner of the boy’s mouth quirked up in what might have been a smile. “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Citing scripture while preparing to sacrifice his soul to a devil—he’d never had a master quite like this one.

_I probably never will again._

The thought sent a slicing pain through Sebastian’s chest. Seeking to shake off the unpleasant sensation, the butler carefully untied the Earl’s eye-patch, revealing the contract seal he had hidden from the world.

“Will it hurt?” the young master asked quietly.

Again, that same pain.

“I promise to be gentle, my lord. Just…close your eyes. I am merely sending you off to sleep.” There was some comfort in that. At least this sad little soul could finally rest.

There was no need for Sebastian to extract his spirit by violence. It willingly flew into the demon’s hand when he called it forth with his power. Sebastian quickly caught the Earl’s body with his free arm. Without support from the spirit it housed, it would otherwise have crumpled to the ground, and no Phantomhive butler would allow such a disgrace to befall his master’s person. He then turned his attention to the soul cradled in the palm of his hand. Despite the wicked deeds that had tainted it, the boy’s soul shone like an azure star. A splendid repast.

As he stared at the soul, however, Sebastian was assailed by an onslaught of memories. Poking fun at the young master’s deplorable attempts at dancing. Serving the Earl his tea. Gently waking the drowsy boy to prepare him for the busy day ahead. The dozens of adventures they had shared—murder, sinking ships, the Green Witch, and so many more.

‘From today on, your name will be Sebastian,’ the bruised and bloodied child had told him while the sun rose on the beginning of their contract. After consuming the young master’s soul, the demon wouldn’t be Sebastian anymore. He could become anyone, but he would be no one, the marquis who other demons shunned for his eccentricities, a nameless spirit filling his lack with empty pride and idle dreams in the halls of Hell.

“I…”

The butler’s hand shook, causing the soul to flicker.

“I don’t want to go back to being that demon. I just want to be Sebastian for you, my little lord,” he whispered as his shaking intensified. He released the soul, tenderly guiding it to the young master’s body. “There, there. Settle where you belong.”

Sebastian cuddled the child, watching his soul return and those heterochrome eyes slowly open.

“Sebastian? What…”

“I can’t,” the demon whispered. “I’m sorry, young master, it’s…I can’t. I _can’t_.”

“You mean you’re _not_ going to eat me?” The Earl’s brow furrowed in perplexity.

“Let me stay on as your butler, my lord,” the demon pleaded. “I’ll uphold our contract for the rest of your years, however many or few they might be.”

“You’re playing games with me,” the boy interjected crossly.

“I can’t lie to you. You know that. Please live, and let me serve you.”

“But why?” the flabbergasted Earl choked out.

Sebastian kissed the crown of his head like a parent soothing an agitated child.

Voice so soft that it was almost inaudible, the demon admitted in surrender, “Because you're precious to me.”

“Damn and blast, Sebastian, you’ve gone soft,” his master scoffed, but he snuggled up to the demon like a little chick seeking shelter beneath its mother’s wings, and he showed no signs of wanting to break the contact.

After a few moments, Sebastian rose to his feet, smiling when the young master wrapped his arms around his neck.

“Let’s go home, my lord.” He intended for the Earl to have many more birthdays, and he would try his best to make them happy ones.

**Author's Note:**

> "Like a flower of the field, blooming today only to fall to the dark winds of fate.": A reference to Psalm 103:15-16. "As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more." (New King James Version)
> 
> “Well done, good and faithful servant.” from Matthew 25:23. The full verse, taken from Christ's Parable of the Talents, reads, "His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’"


End file.
